Anthony Brown was a revelation last week against Northern Illinois, but on Saturday afternoon the competition stiffens when Boston College hosts Wake Forest at 1 p.m. in the first ACC game of the year for two teams that showed improvement last year, and have hopes of showing they’re continuing to rise this year.

By Eric Avidon/Daily News Staff

Anthony Brown, it turned out, was the answer to the question that hovered over fall camp.

Throughout August, the redshirt freshman was in a quarterback competition with redshirt junior Darius Wade, and coach Steve Addazio chose not to reveal his choice to start for Boston College until the Eagles kicked off at Northern Illinois last Friday night. And Brown was a revelation.

He completed 26-of-42 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns with one interception, throwing the ball with authority in BC’s 23-20 win. Now, however, it’s time to see what Brown can for an encore.

On Saturday afternoon the competition stiffens when BC hosts Wake Forest at 1 p.m. in the first ACC game of the year for two teams that showed improvement last year, and have hopes of showing they’re continuing to rise this year.

“We're playing a great team in Wake Forest,” BC coach Steve Addazio said during his weekly conference call on Wednesday. “[Wake Forest coach] Dave Clawson is one of the guys in the business that I have utmost respect for because of the way that he developed his team, his program — the detail, the fundamentals. You see it all over the tape.

“The way he's taken his team, and over the last four years, I think, has been a remarkable job. They're talented. They have speed. They're good on defense … [and] offensively I love their quarterbacks.”

Brown was at his best last week in the waning moments of the first half when he led BC on a 50-yard scoring drive that took barely a minute, completing 5-of-6 passes capped by a 5-yard touchdown to Michael Walker.

But there were moments mixed in — like when he threw an interception on just his third career attempt— when he looked like the freshman he is, which is to be expected.

Overall, however, with Brown at quarterback the Eagles showed they can build on the momentum they created late last season in the passing game when graduate transfer Patrick Towles was at quarterback. Brown looked like the real deal, and for the first time in a long time it looks like BC has a decent stable of wide receivers, perhaps led by Brown’s fellow redshirt freshman Kobay White.

“I think it was a great learning experience and learning curve for [Brown] in that game,” said Addazio. “I was very pleased with his performance. He realized — we realized — that there were so many more opportunities there that we let get away, and that's part of this process. … He certainly has the tools, the demeanor, and the mental toughness to play that position.”

Even Wake Forest’s Clawson was impressed.

“I think they're very, very improved on offense,” he said, “so this will be a very challenging game for us.”

Another positive for BC was the kicking of Colton Lichtenberg, who made all three of his field goal attempts.

Given that BC beat Wake Forest 17-14 last year after suffering a humiliating 3-0 loss the year before, and that kicking has been the bane of BC’s existence for the past few seasons, Lichtenberg could be crucial on Saturday and beyond.

All, however, was not great for BC against NIU. The Eagles’ running game was inconsistent at best, and overall pretty poor.

They gained a decent 148 yards, but it took 50 carries to do so — an average of less than three yards per carry. And that was against a defense that ranked 88th nationally against the run a year ago while playing a Mid-American Conference schedule.

Overall, BC averaged just 3.68 yards per play, which after one week has the Eagles ranked 121st out of 128 teams.

With Wake Forest sporting a stout defense that ranked 22nd in points allowed last year — and has held BC to 17 and zero points the last two years — it would greatly benefit Brown to have a steadier rushing attack against the Demon Deacons.

“I would say offensively we'd like to take another step in our run game,” said Addazio. “I was pleased with the growth in our throw game, though we [also] have to keep improving there.”

Unfortunately for BC, it will be without a key piece of its rushing attack. Millis native Jon Baker, a three-year starter at center and a senior captain, suffered a knee injury against Northern Illinois and has been ruled out against Wake Forest.

Defensively, BC was solid but not spectacular against NIU, giving up 20 points and 367 yards. Wake Forest played Presbyterian last week (a 56-7 win), so there’s little that can be gleaned about the Demon Deacons. But Wake Forest will play two quarterbacks — senior John Wolford and sophomore Kendall Hinton — who can both run and pass, and the Demon Deacons have improved from an average of 14.8 points per game in 2014 to 17.4 in 2015 to 20.4 last year under Clawson.

“Our kids have a great deal of respect for Wake Forest,” said Addazio, “and they know that this is going to be a four-quarter contest.”

Eric Avidon can be reached at 508-626-3809 or eavidon@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericavidon.

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